Analysis of innovation trend of fungal melanin based on international patent data

Abstract:

[Background] Melanin has many biological activities such as anti-tumor and anti-radiation, which make it of great application potential in production and life. Fungi is an important source of melanin, and it has shorter production cycle and higher yield compared with animals and plants, which make it easy to achieve commercial application. [Objective] The application, development and innovation trend of fungal melanin were revealed to provide references for researchers and enterprises that dedicated to fungal melanin industry. [Methods] Based on IncoPat scientific and technological innovation platform, we searched and counted the related patents of fungal melanin around the world, and made comprehend analyses of them from the aspects of involved strains, the composition of patent technology, and patent values of the applicants. [Results] The results of analysis showed that the number of patent applications for production and preparation was the largest in the field of fungal melanin (50.56%), while the number of applications as chemical dyes and cosmetics was smallest (13.48%). The main strains involved the following genus: Fomes, Aureobasidium, Auricularia, Inonotus, Lachnum, Ganoderma and Aspergillus. At present, the hot technical fields of patent applications of fungal melanin are mainly C12 (microbial fermentation; medium; mutations or genetic engineering) and A61 (medicine), and we predict that both of them will continue to be hot fields of technical applications for quite a while to come; China has the largest number of fungal melanin patents, but the percentage of high-value patents was relatively low, and there is still a certain gap compared with foreign countries. [Conclusion] Chinese researchers need to enhance creative application and overseas layout of core patent technologies in medicine and chemical industry, strengthen cooperative research with enterprises and technology transfer, in order to seize the application market of fungal melanin in these fields, and promote the development of fungal melanin related patents related to a higher quality.